


The one where he dies

by AdikaOfMandalore



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, But there is an alternate ending, Episode 8 if IG-11 didn't remain with Din, F/M, Gen, M/M, Other, So much angst, That I will post eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27165067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdikaOfMandalore/pseuds/AdikaOfMandalore
Summary: «Mando, I'm sorry, I need to take it off.» You put your hands around the helmet's edges and start to lift.«No.» He desperately grabs your wrists, but his grip's weak and he drops his gloved hands soon afterwards. Still, you drop any next attempt, because, despite everything, you can't bring yourself to go against his beggings and break his stupid Creed.«Please.»«You leave me here and- make sure the child's safe.»
Relationships: Din Djarin x reader, Din Djarin/Reader, The Mandalorian x reader, The Mandalorian/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	The one where he dies

«MANDO!» You shot the next Stormtrooper without even looking and launch yourself towards your bounty hunter partner, sprawled seemingly lifeless on the dusty ground in front of the cantina. You drop on your knees among the smoke and debris, the rain of blaster fire missing your hunched form for some miracle, and immediately go to check for his pulse. It's feeble, barely there, and you all but miss it for the few moments of desperate search. You press further into the feverish, sweaty skin of his neck to make sure, letting out a trembling breath when you feel it again. It's weak, so weak.

«Mando. Mando, hey! You hear me? Mando! – Silence, he doesn't even stir. You hook your hands under his armpits and try to stand and drag him up with you, but he's too heavy, especially now that he's unresponsive, and you fall back down. – Cara!»

«I'm here.» You jump and wipe your head to the left, where the dark-haired woman is kneeling next to you. Lost as you were in your desperation, you didn't even notice her coming by your side. Nor the Imperials she clearly got rid of while you were preoccupied and defenceless.

«He's alive, but- he doesn't- he's not-» You keep chocking on your words and shaking your head, eyes brimming with hot, unshed tears. The memory of him crushed by the full blast of the explosion and brutally tossed in mid air like some sort of a ragged doll keeps rewinding behind your eyelids.

«I know. I got him. Let's go.»

The next moments pass in a blur of shouts and shots.

The vast, devastated room of the cantina is dark and fresh, compared to the blinding, scorching light you were surrounded with while outside. You're covered in sand and grim and a few bruises are starting to bloom where a Stormtrooper hit you with their armoured elbow, but barely register any of it. Without a word, you pass by Greef Karga and the IG-Unit droid and follow Cara towards an overturn table, where you help her lay down with extreme care the man in her arms. As soon as she moves away, you're kneeling by his side.

«Mando» you beg in a whisper, taking one of his hands in yours, and a pained moan never sounded so sweet and hopeful, to you. He struggles to sit up, but Cara is immediately here to push him back down, carefully, but still firmly.

«Take it easy. They got you quite bad, buddy.» The mercenary tries to joke, but her dark eyes are storming with worry and her face has the colour of ash. You hate the look in her gaze, you hate the unsaid you can so easily read in it.

«You need to- to leave. – Mando's voice is choked out and strained, just barely above a whimper and you're sure you hear it simply because you're currently pressing your forehead against the cold cheek of his beskar helmet. – 'S the kid?»

«She's fine – you answer in a murmur, looking briefly behind you to see Greef currently clutching the sack with the strange, tiny green creature in it and the droid working on opening the grate that leads to the sewers of Nevarro. – We're gonna be fine.»

«'M not gonna make it» he breathes shakily, slumping further down the surface of the table.

«Don't say it. We just have to find the covert, right? The Mandalorians will help you. You're gonna be okay.» You're begging the Maker and whoever is listening to help him, by now, but you know, deep down, that you'll receive no answer. Especially when he weakly turns his head towards you, his helmet dropping against your forehead with a low thud, as if it's too heavy for him to hold up. Your shallow breaths dust over polished, shiny metal and you can't tell who's trembling the most, between the two of you.

Cara calls your name and your blood turns to ice at her tone. But nothing compares to what you feel when you look up at her and see her fingers drenched in blood. You immediately know it's not hers – she would have no reason to show you with such dread, if it was – and you lightly caress his nape just under the helmet, your fingers briefly tangling with his mess of damp hair. Your hand comes out wet and red and a loud sob runs through your chest.

«Mando, I'm sorry, I need to take it off.» You put your hands around the helmet's edges and start to lift.

«No.» He desperately grabs your wrists, but his grip's weak and he drops his gloved hands soon afterwards. Still, you drop any next attempt, because, despite everything, you can't bring yourself to go against his beggings and break his stupid Creed.

«Please.»

«You leave me here and- make sure the child's safe.»

«No. – Now it's your time to refuse. – Not without you. Don't ask me that. Never ask me that.»

«Here. – He doesn't listen and, with what little strength he has left, he rips something from under his chest cuirass and pushes it between your bloody fingers. – Take this. Show it- show it to the covert and- tell them Din D-Djarin sends you. They'll protect you.» You clutch the silvery pendant to your chest, but you keep your eyes fixed on his black T visor, where you hope you're finding his.

«You tell them that, okay?»

«I won't make it – he repeats, resigned, seemingly at peace with his death, but you can sense the stream of fear underneath. – But I can hold the Imps long- long enough for you to run. Let me have a warrior's death. Let me protect you and the kid one last time.» He murmurs that last part softly, so that you're the only one that can hear it. A secret; the last. You shake your head, your vision hazy with tears and are about to open your mouth to refuse one more time. And that's when the fire comes.

Somewhere behind you, you hear Greef cursing, loudly, but then someone's on your back, pressing you flush against Mando's armoured chest, and you can't see nothing but the dark cowl covering his neck. The blood is starting to seep into it.

«What's going on?» you scream over the flames and the chaos, but your voice is muffled by his body.

«Incinerator trooper! – Cara all but shouts right in your ears, pressing further against the both of you with the next attack. – They're trying to burn us out, the bastards!»

«The kid.» His words are barely above a breath and, at first, you think he's worrying for the tiny being, but, when you manage to look behind your shoulder and Cara's, you see a bundle of brown and green standing between your group and the remnants of the door, blown out by the first blast of fire. The small child has her arms lifted, tiny body shaking. You can only see her back, but the power and concentration radiate off of her in waves and make your head spin.

You can see them, now, the Flametrooper, standing in what was once the threshold. They're holding some sort of flamethrower and pointing it directly to the three of you, the creature standing right in between. Your first instinct is to push off of Mando and escape the former rebel's embrace to grab and pull her away from harms' way, but you barely have time to blink, before your persecutor is activating his weapon and a wall of roaring fire is flying towards you at incredible speed. It blinds you and dries your lungs, but it never licks your bodies. And, when you manage to lift your eyelids, you see why.

«Oh my-!» Your exclamation dies on your tongue when the rumbling fire simply... stops. As if pressed against glass. As if something is holding it. The green child pushes one of her three-fingered claws forward and the flames follow her motion, shooting towards the ceiling, before engulfing the red and white figure at the door and sending them flying on the courtyard, out of your line of sight. The threshold collapses with the force of the blown, sealing you in and your enemies out. For now, since there is still a pretty big breach where the oblong window used to stand.

Cara finally gets off of you and goes to take the now unconscious kid between her arms and you silently thank her, before turning back to the Mandalorian slumped nearly under you.

«Go» he begs, briefly enclosing you hands in his, the necklace biting at your palms.

«Din.» His name feels strange on your lips, but you can't bring yourself to keep calling him with that generic moniker anymore, not when he- not when he's-

«Din, please. I- I can't leave you. Please, don't ask me to leave you» you plead, pressing your forehead once again against his helmet with a broken wail. His hands sneak behind your neck to keep you close to him and you can sense his eyes on you; you're fogging his visor with your sobs, but none of you could care less. His grip on you feels so weak, it makes you cry even harder.

Something crashes behind you, but you don't turn around; Greef's victorious shout must only mean that the droid finally managed to open the grate. You can leave and seek the Mandalorians. You have to leave Din behind.

«Say it- again. Please.» His beg is but a whisper, barely there, but you immediately close your eyes and repeat his name, over and over again, until it's but a chocked out sound, your hands gripping with all of your strength the cowl of his undershirt, refusing to let him go.

«We don't have much time. We gotta go!» Greef Karga's urgent tone brusquely brings you back to a reality you don't want to live in.

«No. – You just about screech, when Cara helps you on your feet and drags you away from Din. He lets you go, almost pushes you away. You try to pull away with all of your weight, but she was able to drag Din, a fully armoured man taller than her all the way back to the cantina, so it doesn't take much for her to resist your ruckus and shove you the few feet that separate you from the opened crate. – No no no. Please! We can't leave him! We can't! DIN!»

«Stop it! – she shouts, grabbing your shoulders and lightly shaking you. – You have to come back to your senses, now. You have to help look after the child. She's already losing her father, she can't lose you as well! Do you understand?»

It's like her words slap you, but you calm down nonetheless and, gulping down a shaky breath, you numbly take the bag the droid is currently handing you; the child soundly asleep inside it. 

Cara is right, you know she's right. And yet, you can't stop thinking about Din, at death's door right behind you. He's going to die here, alone, and– you can't leave him; you don't want to leave him. But Cara is right. The kid needs you, now more than ever. She's your priority. So you'll have to be strong; for her, for Din. For yourself. And, in order to do so, you have to let him go. You have to let go the shared future you were both slowly moving towards.

Now that you stopped thrashing around and begging between sobs, you can't really bring yourself to do much more but hug the creature closer to your chest and stare emptily at your feet. Din's necklace painfully digging into your clenched fist. Someone, Greef, hooks his arm under yours and helps you through the crate, the droid opening the way to the sewers, blasters ready in its metal claws, looking for possible menaces.

The last thing you see when you dare glancing over your shoulders is Din's expressionless visor trained on you for the last time, but you can’t feel the warm weight of his gaze on you. 

He’s already gone.


End file.
